naughty Posted December 27, 2010 Share Posted December 27, 2010 BIOCUBE 14 hey guys! welcome to my awesome biocube thread i always have tons of questions it's a stock bc14 with stand, newest fts: filtration inTank media basket chaeto jbj nano-glo LED light purigen chemipure filter floss >15 lbs live rock flow maxi-jet 900 koralia nano 425 temperature control jager heater stock biocube fans coralife digital thermometer lighting 12000k panorama pro led strip 50/50 white/blue panorama pro led strip blue/magenta panorama pro led strip on for 11 hours each day maintenance weekly 2.5 gal water changes feed small amounts every day, more every other day weekly testing glass cleaned daily with magfloat anemones fed once a week regular top off with freshwater (once every 1-2 days) livestock i've had that survived 1 false percula 1 black&white false percula 1 rose bubble tip anemone 1 yellow-tailed blue damsel 1 flower anemone hammer coral brown gorgonian yellow gorgonian 6 blue-leg hermit crabs (originally had ~10) ~8 porcelain crabs many pistol shrimp peppermint shrimp (hate that thing, can't really get it out, but it keeps eating my softies) serpent star yellow star bunch of snails urchin livestock that didn't make it 2x royal gramma 4x multicolor sponges (came with the package, kept slowly dying for months until i took them out) purple gorgonian (because it was nonphotosynthetic i believe, not enough food conentration) green mushroom (eaten by shrimp) orange zoas (eaten by shrimp) ricordea (my fault, i tried to scrape it off the frag) sea cucumber (probably not enough food) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- old post: list of equipment bought so far: shopping spree #1 eheim jager 50 W (love it!) purigen 100 ml (changed out twice over the year) small mag-float uncut filter media API saltwater test kit (ammonia, ph, NO3) thermometer (little digital one, it's cute - broke, got replaced by the same one ) drip acclimation kit mesh net timer power center (returned) deep six hydrometer (returned) shopping spree #2 5 gal jug x 2 fresh and salt water from lfs 2 cheap timers from walmart (these are going to replace that pointlessly expensive power strip) refractometer (yeah... you guys were right... i caved) hydor flo API reefmaster test (CO3 hardness, PO4, Ca, NO2) chemipure elite 6.5 (replaced twice over the year) red epoxy putty hydor koralia nano 425 InTank media basket this is what i've done so far: took out the bioballs put purigen in the middle chamber put in lfs saltwater, but it's barely 1.020 played with the heater enough to get it to keep the temp constant, i really like the jager heater got all my stuff from the second purchase, put the powerhead in, love my refractometer!!! ordered live rock and sand from tbs, going to the airport to get it tomorrow!!! so stoked.. did all of the tests on water because i was curious, i think they're alright, still hoping it'll evaporate enough to raise the salinity a bit: pH: 8.0 salinity: 1.021 ammonia: 0.25 ppm nitrite: 0 nitrate: 0 calcium: 400 carbonate hardness: 8 dKh phosphate: 0 temperature: heater set at 75, but i get 75-83 fluctuation with the full light cycle, is that okay? [*]learned the lesson of always wearing gloves when doing the tests... my fingers felt so funky for a while.. future plans: return hydrometer, timer outlet strip get a bucket and fix the salinity of my water get a good power strip cut off the tab in between chamber 2 and 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- older post: hello! i'm new to these nano reef forums thought i would introduce myself while my cube is being shipped . i'm a bit of newbie at this, had a freshwater 30 gallon at my parents' house, but now that i'm out of the dorms and in an apartment i'd like to try having my own little piece of reef... i am super excited to finally be putting my month of research to use and getting my first reef tank, i just became more and more obsessed about it as i kept reading ... anyway, the plan is to establish a nice system with just the live rock/cuc/fish first and once that stabilizes i'll try to grow some coral... got a couple things i need to figure out, feel free to help me out! ~ type of heater to use, would digital be worth it? ~ what test kit i should get ~ is a hydrometer really alright if i don't wanna blow 90 bucks on a refractometer? ~ i'm hoping to be buying my saltwater at least at first, is that okay to start out? ~ i gotta figure out a cool color combo of a clown (i haven't decided which kind yet, leaning more toward the true perculas but i have to go look at them again at the lfs) annnd something not goby... i originally wanted a blue fish, but the first day of reading about it i found out damsels would not do well with clowns ~ what type of live rock?? is one type significantly better than another or is it all just color/shape preference? anyway, i'll have pictures as soon as i get it, which should be by the end of this week if i'm lucky for now, enjoy the avatar Link to comment
Flying_Hellfish Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 ~ type of heater to use, would digital be worth it? I've had good luck with Jager in my fowlr and I'm going to use one in my new 29g BC ~ what test kit i should get The two I see mentioned most often are API and Salifert. API are cheaper but can be difficult to distinguish between colors, lots of people like salifert but I haven't used them personally. ~ is a hydrometer really alright if i don't wanna blow 90 bucks on a refractometer? You can get one used for probably $25 bucks just keep an eye out for it in the hardware for sale section. Or get the marine depot special for $50 brand new. For fowlr it isn't a big deal but hydrometers tend to be off, mine read .002 high which isn't as bad as some people. If you get a refractometer get the calibration fluid as well, it is worth the few bucks. ~ i'm hoping to be buying my saltwater at least at first, is that okay to start out? Depends on where you get it from, invest in an ro/di and it will pay for itself in a few months. You can get them all over, I got mine from air water ice and I love it. ~ i gotta figure out a cool color combo of a clown (i haven't decided which kind yet, leaning more toward the true perculas but i have to go look at them again at the lfs) annnd something not goby... i originally wanted a blue fish, but the first day of reading about it i found out damsels would not do well with clowns I think that commonly (at least around my LFS) damsels are considered the jerks of saltwater, lol ~ what type of live rock?? is one type significantly better than another or is it all just color/shape preference? If you can find someone breaking down a system locally you can get a good deal on it usually. I'm ordering from premium aquatics because they are close enough to me that I can do ground shipping and people in my area have had good experiences with them. I'm ordering about 10lb of LR online and using about 20-25lb of dry rock. I've only had a SW fowlr for a year so I'm sure people with much more experience will chime in but this is what I have picked up over that year. Edit: I forgot to mention that no matter what heater you have I have heard too many horror stories to run without a controller of some type. I use a RKL on my fowlr and I'm getting one for my new BC29 as well. Last thing I want to come home to is cooked livestock. Link to comment
ciedre Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 StevieT's refractometers are only $48.99 at the moment! Thats a bargain and a great product! http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Refractometer-RF-CT-RFAR.htm Link to comment
lqdKaos Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 ~ type of heater to use, would digital be worth it? +1 on the Jager. I dont know if a digital heater is worth it. I do have a digital thermometer, which I find much easier to read than the old school ones with a red line. ~ what test kit i should get I have an API. I havent had much trouble with it. compared my results with the LFS and they were pretty close. ~ is a hydrometer really alright if i don't wanna blow 90 bucks on a refractometer? You can find a decent refractometer for around 50 bucks now. Still more expensive than a hydrometer, but also more reliable after calibration (imho). I never could get all the bubbles off the needle on my hydrometer. BTW, my directions said I could use distilled water to calibrate. ~ i'm hoping to be buying my saltwater at least at first, is that okay to start out? My tank is 2 years old and the water my LFS sells is very consistent. I still buy my salt and fresh top off water. Its much easier than mixing my own....because I am lazy. ~ i gotta figure out a cool color combo of a clown (i haven't decided which kind yet, leaning more toward the true perculas but i have to go look at them again at the lfs) annnd something not goby... i originally wanted a blue fish, but the first day of reading about it i found out damsels would not do well with clowns No opinion here. Get what you like. But as it looks like you are doing, research your fish. Once in the tank, a fish can be really hard to get out. ~ what type of live rock?? is one type significantly better than another or is it all just color/shape preference? The more porous the rock the better. I find the tonga branch stuff pretty, but hard to stack and make a rockscape from. The fiji rock that my LFS sells looks pretty nice and can be stacked easily to create stable scaping. The mixture of live rock and base rock suggested above can really help save you some $$$. It will all become live rock after a little while in the tank. I have seen some people recommend getting your LR from different places to increase the diversity of the beneficial bacteria. IDK if thats true or not. But if you have a friend that can sell/give you some from their tank, and get some from the LFS, it cant hurt. Welcome to the hobby. My aquarium is a source of entertainment and almost meditation for me. I can sit in front of it for a long time and forget about the outside world for a while. Friends with kids love it and my friends that house sit for me while I am gone say that its their favorite thing about house sitting. This is a great community and I have learned ALOT from the folks on the board here. I dont post much, but have been hanging around for a long time. Link to comment
naughty Posted December 29, 2010 Author Share Posted December 29, 2010 wow! you guys are super helpful! i've been looking at the jagers and the hydor theos for heaters, i think as long as the jager fits in the back of the cube i'll get it. probably gonna try api for the tests if it's cheaper, can't spend too too much money yet... i have a feeling this is going to be where my work money will be going for a while, so i'm trying to figure out what to buy now and what to upgrade later.... do you guys know a website that it's best to buy all the equipment from? also i'm trying to come up with the list of bare essentials to have to start the cube off, so far i have: ~heater (probably gonna go with the eheim jager) ~live rock ~sand ~api test kit (phosphates, nitrates, calcium, carbonate hardness) ~saltwater ~thermometer ~timer power strip thought it'd be good to ask what you guys think on modding the filters. i understand that it needs to be modded, i'm leaning towards getting steviet's media rack and going from there. do you think chaeto is absolutely necessary for a healthy tank or can i get away with using nonliving methods? what do you guys put back in there and where do you buy it? i noticed he doesn't sell the led lights anymore... is there anything else i absolutely must add to the list of first purchases? Link to comment
jeff@zina.com Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 ~ is a hydrometer really alright if i don't wanna blow 90 bucks on a refractometer? Blow the $50 bucks, especially if this is a nano tank. It really is that important. do you guys know a website that it's best to buy all the equipment from? First, while many sites will have ALL the equipment you need, you may not get the best deals that way. As for the best sites, try these: http://www.nano-reef.com/sponsors/ Jeff Link to comment
naughty Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 hey guys!!! finally some updates here is a picture of my lovely just put together stand and tank after i got it and here is the little journal i made for all my fishtank notes i bought a ton of stuff from foster and smith aquatics, i got: - eheim jager 50 w heater - mag float - uncut filter floss - purigen 100 ml - api test kit (ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) - thermometer - deep six hydrometer to tide me over til i can afford a refractometer - fish net - fish acclimation kit, it was 2 bucks and looked like something i would probably use... also, found out i can get saltwater from the lfs for a buck a gallon, so i'm going to do that for now, since i probably won't have to change much more than a couple gallons a week i looked at the tampa bay saltwater website and it looked like stuff i would love to get, so i think i'll end up getting the package for the 10 gallon which includes: - 20 pounds live rock - 10 pounds live sand - 10 blue leg hermit crabs - 5 astrea snails - 1 tiger tail cucumber - 1 serpent or brittle star - 1 peppermint shrimp does this sound like a good package? i liked how they said they ship half the rock and then once it cycles the rest of the rock and the critters Link to comment
ChrisCT Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 is that the main entrance door to your place? might not be the best place for your tank imo. Link to comment
naughty Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 nope! it's the door to my kitchen, used only by me, so no troubles there Link to comment
Kaneda215 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 The biggest mistake I made when I first setup my BC14 (11 weeks ago) is that "I didn't want to spend the money." Honestly, looking back had I gotten all of the stuff that was recommended the first time, I probably wouldn't have dealt with this algae bloom, which led to me spending more money and ditching my cheap equipment before. If you can cancel the swing arm, and get a refractometer. 1. Depending on what you want to keep, (I initially wanted a small rock with a clown... and now have traded in numerous fish for different ones, have 6 corals, WAY more LR...ie. this stuff is addicting so set yourself up for a coral filled reef tank), you're going to want to increase your flow. Go with the MJ900 and Koralia Nano - increased flow in your tank if you want corals will be a huge factor, it'll help keep detritus going through your filtration, and it'll be much more interesting to watch your fish. 2. Go buy a couple 2 or 3 gallon buckets and start doing your salt water mixes and weekly changes on your own. The sooner you get the motions down with mixing your salt water and doing the ~15% water changes, the less problems you'll see in the future. If you get the MJ900, you can use your stock pump to mix the water in your bucket... buy a second heater to keep the water in your bucket heated. Whenever changing water (which is probably one of the most important scheduled things you can do if you want to keep a healthy nano), you want to match salinity and heat. 3. Go buy a syphon to vacuum your bottom, which will help with water changes. 4. Go buy a turkey baster, probably the most useful item for the $ you can ever get. Blast your LR (live rock) and sand bed daily, or even weekly before water changes. A key factor in eliminating a retarded algae boom, keeping fish alive, and maintain the health of all living organisms in your future, is keeping the detritus to a minimum. 5. Go buy two timers. I didn't do this at first and soon realized the importance of a scheduled lighting system is for your tank and its health. Set your actinic (blue light) to 10 hours a day, and your 10k (white light) to 8 hours a day... leaving an hour of actinic for dawn and dusk. Spending the $20 on timers now will also cut down on the little "annoyances" of reef keeping. 6. Get rid of the bioballs now, they'll lead to nitrate factories. I didn't do this at first because I didn't want the increased noise of water dripping into chamber 2. Forget the min and max line. Fill up chamber 2 to wherever you want. The inTank media rack with filter floss (very cheap)-purigen-chemipure combination, is probably the single best thing you can do for filtration unless you wanna go macro algae. I'm selling a new one that I don't need anymore if you're interested (also some BC14 filters if you want): http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=258134 7. Get your live rock aquascaping down the first time. Leave flat spots for corals and space between rock and the glass for cleaning purposes. I probably changed my aquascape 4x by now, and it's been a huge PIA, especially because I'm a perfectionist. Every time you move crap around in an established tank it stresses EVERYTHING. Stress is bad, especially if you want your corals to grow quickly. I can't really think of anything else for now, though I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. Just take things super slowly and make sure you research everything before buying. Try not to impulse buy when you see a sick coral at your LFS. Go home first, see where you'll put it, and research what kind the lighting/flow/if it'll eat your clowns.... THEN go back and buy it if you want. Another lesson I learned the hard way. I promise if you spend the money now on the good items, it'll cost you less in the long run. PLUS you won't have to worry that you've done things incorrectly... and you can sit back and enjoy your tank. Link to comment
jojoe972 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Nice write up here..... now go upgrade your lighting Link to comment
Kaneda215 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Nice write up here..... now go upgrade your lighting Hahah a sunpod or something is the next $200+ leap... although I'm really happy with my setup right now. Link to comment
naughty Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 lol, thanks kane!! i love the advice, unfortunately i'm incapable of going and blowing an extra 500 bucks atm, being a college student and all, so all in due time. i know that all of that needs to be done to have a perfect tank, and it will probably take me a good half a year to get it completely set up, so i just pretty much have to be patient. basically, after buying all that jazz, i will be buying the package deal from tampa bay saltwater, i'm going to be buying water for sure for the first couple of months, i'm planning on purchasing a refractometer, the other test kit (phosphate, calcium, carbonate hardness), and chemipure to replace the original carbon tray before i put any fish in there, upgrading the pumps after that and then possibly buying the ro/di unit and mixing my own water when i decide to get corals. so it will be a while but bear with me, i think i can do it as for the turkey baster and timers,definitely on the list, i ordered one timer strip with daytime/nighttime timers, and i suppose i could get another one for dawn/dusk, but 10 hours seems like a bit much to me, no? i feel like people have their lights on for less... anyway, keep the comments coming! Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I still don't understand why all the hate on hydrometers... I have a deep six as well... It's probably not as accurate to read as a refrac, but it works just fine. when you get it, take out a jar full of water. Let it sit out to get to room temp. Test the salinity of it in your hydrometer. Write that down. Then goto LFS and have them check it with a calibrated refractometer. Write that down. The difference is how off your hydrometer is. If for example you're .002 high (your hydro read 1.025 and refrac read 1.023), just remember that if you want to mix to 1.025 you should actually mix to 1.027 on your hydrometer. the other option is the floating glass type hydrometer, which are quite accurate if used correctly (measure the water either with the pumps off or use a flower vase or something to test). Good luck though! Good advice here. Link to comment
Kaneda215 Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 lol, thanks kane!! i love the advice, unfortunately i'm incapable of going and blowing an extra 500 bucks atm, being a college student and all, so all in due time. i know that all of that needs to be done to have a perfect tank, and it will probably take me a good half a year to get it completely set up, so i just pretty much have to be patient. basically, after buying all that jazz, i will be buying the package deal from tampa bay saltwater, i'm going to be buying water for sure for the first couple of months, i'm planning on purchasing a refractometer, the other test kit (phosphate, calcium, carbonate hardness), and chemipure to replace the original carbon tray before i put any fish in there, upgrading the pumps after that and then possibly buying the ro/di unit and mixing my own water when i decide to get corals. so it will be a while but bear with me, i think i can do it as for the turkey baster and timers,definitely on the list, i ordered one timer strip with daytime/nighttime timers, and i suppose i could get another one for dawn/dusk, but 10 hours seems like a bit much to me, no? i feel like people have their lights on for less... anyway, keep the comments coming! I doubt the things I've listed should exceed $200, but as long as you're taking things slowly and not adding any livestock or corals before you fix the flow/filtration... it's not a big deal I would think. Remember, anytime you make any change to a stocked setup... it adds stress. So better to do all the customizing first! Well, it's only really 8 hours of 10k... but adjust the lighting as you see fit. 8-10hours is fine. Personally I didn't bother with the RO/DI unit because I finish up with college this May... so distilled water at a grocery store at $.89 a gallon has worked fine so far. I just sent you a PM. Link to comment
rO.oster Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 StevieT's refractometers are only $48.99 at the moment! Thats a bargain and a great product! http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Refractometer-RF-CT-RFAR.htm yeah you don't need this to start with. my deep six hydrometer works fine. take it to the fish store, and you measure their water (becuase your the one using it at home) then compare it to their refractometer results, and note the difference. like this guy said: I have a deep six as well... It's probably not as accurate to read as a refrac, but it works just fine. when you get it, take out a jar full of water. Let it sit out to get to room temp. Test the salinity of it in your hydrometer. Write that down. Then goto LFS and have them check it with a calibrated refractometer. Write that down. The difference is how off your hydrometer is. If for example you're .002 high (your hydro read 1.025 and refrac read 1.023), just remember that if you want to mix to 1.025 you should actually mix to 1.027 on your hydrometer. when your all done, rinse it out so it doesn't get all crusty good luck starting up, keep on reading becuase everyone has their own opinion. so learn and form your own! Link to comment
naughty Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 okay so i've been more on the reefcentral forums but now figured out that i can't edit my first post on there and i can here! so i'll be posting more going to update the first post after this! there's been a bunch of updates but i haven't yet put anything but water in the tank! so it's basically a shelf/salt water holder with a bunch of crap in it that costs 700 bucks ughhh being a college student... gonna have to start putting in more hours to get some hobby money anyway, a couple questions i've still got: ~ how big of a salinity fluctuation is acceptable? ~ what salt should i buy? ~ annnd would i be able to use the koralia nano to mix my salt water? just stick it in a bucket n stuph? ~ where should i keep my filter floss? and should i keep the little sponge cube in the back? ~ should i not use a fishnet for saltwater critters? i read somewhere about it and got confused. thanks guys! Link to comment
naughty Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 yaay got the basket it looks super fancy! does anyone know where the little plastic pieces that came along with it go? Link to comment
naughty Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 so my rock is finally here tbs is absolutely amazing, here are some pics Link to comment
Nolesx4 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 New photo look nice. Keep posting more photos. Nice drawings and journal too. Link to comment
naughty Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 hey thanks!!! i pretty much stopped posting on here and just stuck to reef central since no one seemed to be interested around here i've got plenty of new pictures, here are a couple there ya go Link to comment
donnieG Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Nice tank! I love urchins, I've read how much corraline they can eat but I really like em'. I've got a blue tuxedo and he's picked up some zoa hitchhiker's. It's awesome. Link to comment
naughty Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 still no camera, so i've been neglecting these forums but... today was so exciting that i just can't not share it! my black clownfish is hosting my rbta!!!! :celeb1: well, i think half the reason is that my yellow tailed damsel chases him around, but they all seem to be getting along great (made sure to add the damsel last) i'm hoping eventually my baby clowns will be a mated pair, but for now they're just chasing each other and fighting more than doing the tail shakes alos, my purple gorg is dying but i don't think there's much i can do. i simply can't overfeed my tank enough for it to grow Link to comment
naughty Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 ahhh... high quality pictures make me so happy there will be more to come! Link to comment
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